“Could you run down to the grocery store and get me a couple of things please Honey?” Debbie asked her new husband.
“Why sure”, Jeff replied only too happy to oblige.
“I’ll give you a list”, Debbie went on.
“No, no” Jeff insisted, “I’ll be OK. What do you want?”
“Well, I need some self-rising flour, and a packet of Twinings tea”, she said as she wiped her hands on the towel.
Jeff bounded off, happy to do his beloved’s wish.
He got to the shop and found the section for baking needs. “Flour” he muttered, and then looked at the array of different sorts of flour before him. “Now what sort did she ask for?” he asked himself. High grade, plain white, brown, self-rising, bread flour. Her instructions flew out of his mind.
It was in the days before cell phones, so he made a wild guess and picked a packet off the shelf.
It was the same in the tea section. “Tea”, he muttered, “Now what sort did she ask for?”
Green tea, black tea, cheap tea, expensive tea…. Nerada tea, Bell tea, Choysa tea, Twinings tea? He made a stab and picked a packet up and put it in his basket.
When he got home, Debbie saw what he had brought. “Those aren’t the ones I asked for Jeff”, she wailed, “Why didn’t you listen?”
“Well, I did get flour and tea”, he said.
You see, Jeff had heard, but he hadn’t really listened. This what so many of us are like with what God tells us. Yes, we hear that God loves us, but we don’t listen to the fact that He is a holy God and can’t stand sin. We hear that He wants to bless us, but we don’t listen to the fact that He only blesses those who give their lives to Him and do their best to follow Him. We may even know that verse that says that “all things work together for good”, but we don’t take notice that is only for those who love God and are doing what He wants them to. Let’s make sure that we REALLY listen to what God is saying to us, and then act on it. If Jeff had really LISTENED to Debbie, he would have taken the right things home for her!!
This is why Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. He wants those who hear His Word, to act on it….this is true hearing, obedience.